>> first of all, you want a back to back to back home run because you like michelle obama's first speech, too. secondly, i think when he -- we wrote about this in the "huffington post." when barack obama came into office it was with the idea you could change the way politics operated. instantaneo instantaneously, largely because of the economic crisis he inherited, he had to be an operative inside the political system, play an inside game, get a stimulus passed. when they were crafting health care, they had to cut deals or thought they had to cut deals. i think what changed everything is the debt ceiling deal. they tried to negotiate something there. it blew up in their faces. they said, you know what, rather than catering to the political realities, we have to shape the political realities. it hasn't necessarily been successful. the jobs bill still stalled. they got the bpayroll tax cut. it's a different type of politics than we saw in the first years and it's carried over into this election. >> alex, isn't this to some extent a question of language and tone? actually, over the last cou